The FA Cup: Modern Times

WBA 0-1 QPR

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on the 3rd of april, 1982, west bromwich albion set a record that had taken 110 years to achieve. when they took to the pitch at the old highbury stadium in north london to play second division, queens park rangers, for the right to contest that year's FA CUP final at wembley stadium, they were doing so for the 19th time. no other side had appeared in as many FA CUP semi-finals as the baggies.

their first cup semi-final was a 4-0 victory over local rivals, small heath (who eventually became birmingham city) in 1886. the FA CUP itself had started in 1872 and is acknowledged as professional football's oldest competition.


of course, history tells us that they lost the match against QPR on a late goal, when ally robertson - for some reason known only to himself - played a risky clearance in order to avoid giving away a corner kick. not aware that rangers' stiker, clive allen, was tracking the ball and well positioned to close down the play, robertson's attempt to clear caromed off the onrushing allen and flew straight into the albion goal. as allen ran to the touchline in celebration, he really hadn't known much about it.

that is part of the nature of football.

the imminent replay that centre-half, john wyle, had been discussing with his defensive partner only moments earlier, never materialized and the albion would not advance this far in the competition again for another 27 years. by this time, of course, both domestic cup competitions had lost much of their significance and were hugely diminished in both their economic and cultural importance.


1982 was also the year that tottenham hotspur set an all-time record for number of FA CUP final wins with 8. the baggies were still among the top FA CUP winning sides, having won the competition 5 times - the most recent being in 1968 with a 1-0 extra-time win over everton.

west brom had also done well in the somewhat less prestigious LEAGUE CUP competition, having made 3 appearances in the final. the baggies had won the last competition where the final was played over two-legs, beating west ham united by an aggregate score of 5-3 in 1966. ironically, they had failed to hang on to their title, losing to third division side, QPR, in the competition's first single match final played at wembley the following year. the baggies' last major cup final appearance was in 1970 when they again lost the LEAGUE CUP final in extra-time to manchester city by a score of 2-1.

QPR 1-1 WBA

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there are several statistics related to albion cup runs over the years that are historically note-worthy. for example, when the club's goal-scoring hero of the 1960s, jeff astle, netted the winning goal in that '68 final, he became only the fifth player in the history of the cup to have scored in every round. also, long before the league and cup "double" became an expectation for the country's biggest and richest sides, west bromwich albion won a unique double that has yet to be repeated. in 1931, they won the FA CUP and promotion from the second division. it is the one record that they still hold that is unlikely to ever be repeated.

west bromwich albion's twentieth FA CUP semi-final came in a year when only one PREMIER LEAGUE side had qualified for the final stages of the tournament, in the likes of eventual champions, portsmouth football club. the other two teams, like the baggies, were CHAMPIONSHIP sides, barnsley and cardiff city. unlike west brom, these other two had already performed unlikely feats of giant-killing and had dispensed with top-flight competition already. for the baggies, portsmouth was the first PREMIER LEAGUE side that they had had to face.


in their semi-final with pompey, the baggies undoubtedly had the better of the play and probably should have won. however, despite battering the PREMIER LEAGUE side for much of the game, the goal they were looking for never came and portsmouth were able to squeek through on a tap-in by veteran striker, kanu.

at the end of the day, it was a reminder that the baggies had always been a "cup team" and having a good cup run was once an important component of the club's identity.

of course, the creation of the PREMIER LEAGUE changed all that.

winning the league has, in fact, always been the true measure as to who gets to proclaim themselves "champions of england". but before the PREMIER LEAGUE realigned the relative importance of all things football, it was really only of concern to football "insiders" - the people who actually followed their local clubs, paid their entrance fee at the turnstiles and endured standing in crowded terraces each and every saturday afternoon. it was by-and-large not something that caught the imagination of the general public. that particular honour was reserved for the FA CUP. with its full-on, all day media coverage, "cup final day" was a time for heroics and glory and supplied a major cultural touch-stone for the entire nation. while not everyone could tell you who had won the league that year, everyone remembered who had won the FA CUP. in the early days of TV - and right through until 1992 - it was the public face of english football and the whole country tuned in.


it now seems more of an unwanted distraction... a worry for managers who are either trying to qualify for the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, the promotion play-offs or merely trying to avoid relegation. postponed fixtures from earlier in the season are sometimes now played on the same day. this is something that would have been unthinkable on a day where the whole country used to come to a standstill as the cup final took centre stage in the cultural collective.

supporters of manchester united, manchester city, chelsea and arsenal expect what is very often their club's reserve side to get their preferred starting 11 to the final. however, they are not overly concerned for too long if they don't. for everyone else, it is simply maintaining their place in the league that trumps all other concerns.

it seems strange, in these modern times, to remember how much more disappointed and hurt the celebrated west brom team of the late 1970s were by the cup semi-final loss of 1978 than they were by the league title that escaped them in 1979. in fact, at the time, tony brown had called the 3-1 loss to eventual champions, ipswich town, "the worst day of my life".


when steve clarke took the job of head-coach, he was introduced to the press by stating that a cup run (among other things) would be one of the baggies' goals for the season. however, this was merely an acknowledgement of his understanding of the club's unique history and was never really going to be a priority. at least certainly not like reaching the 50+ point tally (and finishing somewhere in the top 8 or 9) in the league was going to be. after all, what can winning a mere trophy be worth when compared to the £30 million base payments that a team makes from the television contracts paid out to those clubs competing in the almighty, bloody PREMIER LEAGUE?

so, once again, the baggies encountered QPR in the cup and lost. after snatching a late equalizer in the first match at loftus road, they were beaten in the replay at the hawthorns by the excellent goalkeeping of rangers', robert green. even though it was a home fixture against a side that the baggies were expected to beat anyway, no one was too upset for very long. the standard logic of getting the cup competitions out of the way so they could concentrate on their currently slumping league form soon refocussed anyone who might have made the mistake of thinking it had been important in the first place.

sometime in the next 10-20 years, west brom will probably appear in yet another FA CUP semi-final, and for a little while, at least, some older supporters will briefly remember that it used to be something that was important to play for.

Great Expectations and Grand Delusions

QPR 1-1 WBA

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despite a recent drop in form that has seen the baggies take only seven points from their last eight fixtures, their blistering start to the season has assured that they begin the new year still in the top 7, as well as now having a third-round replay at home to QPR in the FA CUP.


while this still represents what is so far the best campaign that west brom has contested in thirty-some-odd years - and any albion supporter would have happily taken their current standing in the table at the outset of the season - the reaction to their recent home loss to fulham gives some small insight into the decidedly unhealthy attitude that the modern football fan now brings with them to the park each and every saturday afternoon.

thankfully, matches are no longer plagued by the large-scale hooliganism that sometimes made attending football in england a terrifying experience in the 1970s and 80s; but something has changed in the mindset of the average, shirt-wearing, scarf waving, anthem singing fan in these early years of the 21st century.

WBA 1-2 Fulham F.C.

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with the whole side being booed off the pitch at half-time against fulham - and club captain, chris brunt, singled out for individual abuse when substituted following a sub-par peformance - the level of psychological anger that has replaced the old feelings of disappointment at a poor result was fully exposed for all to see.

even modest success now seems to create a sense of entitlement in the modern supporter and the right to harbour unrealistic expectations that necessarily require a scape-goat when not properly met.


last year it was james morrison who was singled out for supporter animosity.

to illustrate this tendency at its most dramatic, and after a long run of poor results up the road at wolves, manager stale solbakken's car was vandalized outside his staffordshire apartment back in november. the disturbing fact about this incident is that it wouldn't be the work of "hooligan" elements looking to create social disorder. this type of activity would hold little, if any, interest for them. rather more likely, is that it was disgruntled season-ticket holders, emboldened by some small intake of liquor and beer, and angry at seeing their team's drastic drop in form with the ever impending prospect of a relegation scrap at the bottom end of the CHAMPIONSHIP looming.

Manchester Utd. F.C. 2-0 WBA

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i have always been an admirer of chris brunt's. he's the best dead ball man at the club by some distance. from open play he is capable of cutting apart a defence with a singularly acute and accurate through-ball or scoring with a 25-yard screamer to the top corner. he is a real professional who has strived to continue and improve; and whether you believe that he is an adequate top-flight footballer or not, replacing him would be much more difficult and costly than some might think. so i don't understand why some of the home support turned on him as they recently did.


i wouldn't suggest that things have gotten too far out of hand just yet, but the PREMIER LEAGUE can do terrible damage to the soul of a football club.

while it was not a particularly distinguished performance (especially the first-half) against fulham, it is a mistake on the part of the average west bromwich albion fan to take it for granted that the baggies should necessarily and routinely be beating this level of competition. especially when you consider that the cottagers have been in the PREMIER LEAGUE for the last ten years running, they almost won the EUROPA LEAGUE two years ago, and in dimitar berbatov they have a top international who costs 5 times what albion's most expensive player does. you can't sniff at that.

QPR 1-2 WBA

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the baggies have recently developed the habit of starting slowly, and this has lead to poor performances in the first half of their most recent matches. whatever it is, they are definitely reserving their better football for after the break. my suspician is that this is a by-product of single-minded adherance to the principles of counter attacking football. nowhere was this more evident than their recent trip to old trafford.

to be fair, they looked a little stunned at the occassion and consequently their play throughout the first-half could only be described as "timid". however, they came into the game in the second-half and dominated the play for long periods.

in fact, with the baggies threatening to equalize, and coming more and more onto the front foot in the final stages of the game, united were ultimately forced to bring on their £22.5 million substitute, robin van persie, to ensure the victory.

while disappointed with the result, especially after the baggies looked like they might repeat their achievement of two years ago, i was happy with the performance in the second-half. if they had shown anything at all in the first-half, they just might have gotten something from this game.

WBA 2-1 Norwich City F.C.

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this tendency of playing poorly in the first-half of a match was understandable at old trafford. i can imagine going to play there can be quite overwhelming, even if you've been there before. but this issue has been something that has concerned me since the swansea game.

i think it's a big problem at the moment, and the side needs to go out and start matches much more aggressively, try and get on the ball and not rely so heavily on the counter attack. especially at the hawthorns, and particularly with claudio yacob out at the moment and chris brunt playing in central midfield.

WBA 0-0 West Ham Utd.

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the home fixture with norwich was a solid home win and marked the first time this season that the baggies have taken all three points after having gone behind in a match. it was also significant that after three losses on the bounce, the albion were able to then go three games unbeaten, starting with a draw against a visiting west ham side, followed by a home win over norwich and an away win at QPR. confidence still seems high at the club, and shrugging off a poor run of results like this is another testament to the quality of steve clarke's leadership and a newly found resilience in the team's character.


against west ham, the baggies played well in the second-half after the hammers dominated their visit to the hawthorns in the early going. while the east london side had the better chances from open play, the baggies looked the more dangerous from dead ball situations. it was, however, the usual problem with a scoreless game. where a 1-0 victory snatched at the death can transform 90 minutes of otherwise mediocre football into a supremely exciting spectacle, the 0-0 draw that is at its foundation - regardless of the quality of football - is almost always a disappointment for the supporters on both sides.

Arsenal F.C. 2-0 WBA

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one of the defining characteristics of the average albion supporter is their supreme pessimism and how, over the years, they have come to expect the worst. only a few weeks ago, baggies' fans everywhere were entertaining notions of european qualification and the outside possibility of challenging for a top-five finish in the league. now they are bracing themselves for a relegation scrap. the truth of the matter is probably somewhat less dramatic than either of these possibilities.

it's time to just cool it down a bit and have a little faith.

WBA 3-2 QPR

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my first visit to the hawthorns of the season started out as well as could be hoped. james morrison scored in the 5th minute to give the baggies a lead that would prove unassailable on the afternoon. taking a short pass from youssouf mulumbu just inside rangers' half, shane long broke down the right wing and delivered a perfect cross for morrison to head home from directly in front of goal, leaving QPR goalie, julio cesar, with absolutely no chance.


things just got better as morrison then turned provider. with the baggies gaining possession through pressing the ball in the rangers' half, a series of short passes found the scottish international breaking down the right wing. while his cross was initially cut out by anton ferdinand, the QPR defender was turned awkwardly and unable to control the ball as it rolled out for zoltan gera to smash home from 10 yards out. at this point, the baggies were looking confident and well on course for their 4th straight home win of the season with less than half-an-hour gone.

while they had none of the cohesion or confidence of the baggies - and with nothing really on at that moment - QPR got back into the game with just a little over ten minutes left in the first-half. from a long ball played into the albion box by esteban granero, adel taarabt scored through a wonderful bit of individual skill. taking the ball down with his chest, the rangers' winger turned and hit a screamer on the volley to score what was the first goal that the albion had conceded at home this season.


rangers seemed to have the momentum at the beginning of the second-half with taarabt looking their most dangerous player. the morroccan winger created a good chance in the first minute of the period as he robbed the ball from the feet of baggies right-back, gabriel tamas, but was forced to shoot from too acute an angle and his effort saved by a diving ben foster. taarabt consistently found space down the left flank, but good team defending by the baggies cut out any ball played into a central position and taarabt saw his best efforts come to nothing.

shots by jose bosingwa and granero went flying over the west brom crossbar, while a 30-yard effort by morrison at the other end curled just inches wide of the far post.


with a little over 10 minutes left in the game youssouf mulumbu scored his first of the season for what would eventually prove the winning goal. what was without a doubt the most incisive passing move of the game shredded the QPR defence, leaving the congolese midfielder alone in front of goal to slot the ball neatly home on a cut back from deep down the inside right channel by gonzalo jara reyes to make it 3-1.

but while QPR have yet to gel as a team, they have spent a lot of money in the off season and there is considerable individual talent in the side. with 1:42 seconds of a 4 minute injury time played, granero scored a second rangers goal, again, without any build-up or obvious threat. neatly controlling a short pass in on the edge of the baggies' penalty area, the spanish midfielder turned deftly and looped a stunning strike into the top corner of the net past a rooted ben foster.


rangers made it a tense ending on a late corner kick that the albion failed to deal with properly and the ball fell to bosingwa in a good position. but the portuguese right-back blasted it over the crossbar as the final whistle went with almost 5 minutes added time played. the miss was no more than justice served and the baggies ran out 3-2 winners.

i was lucky enough to get back to new street station in time to catch the 5:42 train travelling back in the direction of bristol. somewhere between cheltenham and bristol parkway, i looked out the window at a darkening, deep red, clouded sunset. between the sky, the comfort of the train speeding along and the fresh memory of a baggies victory, i experienced a moment of sublime contentment. it had been another perfect day at the hawthorns.

WBA 1-0 QPR

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the baggies 6th home win of the campaign served as a fair reflection of west brom's season overall thus far. this match, for example, was an important win against a side that is currently just one step ahead of the relegation places. while pretty much already safe, the baggies are themselves just one step ahead of that.

last year, west brom were forced to depend on heroic wins against the likes of arsenal, liverpool, everton and aston villa (not to mention being the only side in the league to take points at old trafford in a 2-2 draw) to finish a final place of 11th in the league table. this season, however, has seen them take critical points from teams in and around them in the table. it's also worth noting that this campaign the baggies neither found themselves sitting on course for a CHAMPIONS LEAGUE spot going into october, nor did they countenance the very real threat of relegation in february going into march.

while i imagine that there are some season ticket holders who would disagree, but it has been a very consistent season; and one that will have helped lay the crucial groundwork for future PREMIER LEAGUE campaigns. the hawthorns faithful can now look forward to next year with the expectation of yet more incremental improvements to the playing squad with an apparent plan for expansion of the stadium.

still, and with expectations raised by the immediate success found under manager roy hodgson, there was plenty of complaining to be found on phone-in radio shows and internet message-boards over the course of this season.

while there has been the usual assertions about chairman, jeremy peace, his tight-fisted control of "the cash" as well as his perpetual "lack of ambition"; more surprising has been the criticism levelled against the gaffer himself. roy hodgson has been berated for everything from his tactically "boring" and "defensive" football, to the issue of his age and out-dated coaching methods. considering what a truly magnificent job he has done at the club, other supporters and pundits of all stripes have found this most perplexing. while i believe it is just the meaningless bleating of a few arm-chair experts who are no more than a vocal minority, one can also take it as a measure of the kind of unrealistic thinking and expectation that the BARCLAY'S PREMIER LEAGUE can create at a football club.

i have no doubt that essentially, these criticisms derive primarily from the baggies' poor home form throughout the first half of the season. following a 2-1 home victory against bolton wanderers back in november, it took west brom until february to register their next home win. this was done in a rather spectacular trouncing of top-flight perrenials, sunderland, by a score of 4-0, and did much to re-invigorate the home support for the rest of the season. it is only by virtue of one of the best away records in the league that the albion got through this campaign and have ensured they will be playing PREMIER LEAGUE football again next year.

there's no doubt that the baggies have been a better side since the return of captain, chris brunt. he has been the team's most consistently influential player over the past few years; and since west brom's return to the PREMIER LEAGUE, the northern ireland international has captained the side, improved his defending and continued to serve up first-rate set-plays and defence splitting passes. while there is definitely a marked difference in the number of goals that brunt scores as a PREMIER LEAGUE player and his somewhat more prodigious output in the CHAMPIONSHIP, his overall contribution is immeasurable. all too often, though, he goes under-rated and unnappreciated as countless internet message-board posts will bear out.

i would suggest that there are few players anywhere - and in any tier of english football - who could be out injured for three months and play to the level that brunt has since his return to the first team. barring his participation in an overall poor team showing against newcastle - a match that brunt acknowledges he should not have made himself available for - he has come back into the first team in top playing form and only minutes short of full match fitness.

the real feature of this match is that it heralded the return to form of graham dorrans. this was the third decent performance as a starter in recent games, and some small indication that dorrans is finally over the troubles - both on and off the field - that plagued him last season. the scottish midfielder who was so important, and led the club in goals, during the promotion season of 2009-10 has - for whatever reason - not been the same since west brom began life the PREMIER LEAGUE. however, since coming into the team in the last few weeks he has started to show glimpses of the player that we all knew he could be, and it was dozza's long range strike in the 21st minute that settled this match at the hawthorns.

the baggies now have 42 points and really needed a result from this one to prove that they are legitimate and long term top-flight competitors. for the first time in over a decade, the baggies will playing in the same division for more than two years running.

QPR 1-1 WBA

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while the baggies have what would regularly be thought of as three "winnable" league fixtures coming up, i was wary of travelling to loftus road and thought about what happened last time we went there.

it was a dismal performance in the championship and the baggies deservedly lost by a score of 3-1. the lone albion goal being a late consolation by chris brunt in a game they were otherwise not really in at all.

considering what a difficult place to go loftus road can be - and has been over the years - i thought that a draw would be a good result. with the next match being wigan at home, followed by a trip to blackburn away, this is probably the most difficult of the three fixtures and a single point on a visit to west london would be OK. with a potential 9 points on offer, realistically, five points from the three games would probably be a decent return for their efforts.





to be fair, the baggies were second best on the day. while the teams were fairly even in overall performance, numbers would suggest that it was albion who created the better scoring chances. however, the londoners held a much higher percentage of possession but did not make the most of their superiority in time with the football. similarly, the baggies were no better at taking advantage of their opportunities than rangers were at creating them.

the problem that west brom are facing right now is that they are going to have to figure out what to do now that zoltan gera is out for the season. gera was exactly what was missing in the team, given the way in which the season started, and his inclusion in the side was immediate and obvious. the hungarian was superb at linking the midfield and striker(s) and his going out injured has left a massive gap, which will call for roy hodgson to rethink both how the baggies need to play, as well as putting his mind to making at least one significant incoming deal during the january transfer window.

while an away draw is never a bad result, it puts pressure on the baggies to win when wigan athletic come to the hawthorns next week. nontheless, this was a tactically good game where the albion were able to dominate in a lot of statistical categories (shots on goal, corner kicks etc.) while having less of the football then their opponent. one of the hallmarks of a roy hodgson side is the quality of economy. he gets his teams to perform well through good defending and concise movement going into attack without a lot of over elaboration.





coming off the successful run at the end of last season the gaffer was very focussed on improving the albion defensively going into the season. he managed to improve the goalkeeping position by bringing in ben foster from birmingham city, and gareth mcauley has certainly been one of the few stand-out centre-halfs to play at the hawthorns in the last few years.

the secret of success for the baggies is going to be in how well their strikers do. so far, only shane long had been scoring regularly and this lack of goals has somewhat negated the improvements that have been made to the team's defence. however, the albion goal suggested that the long/odemwingie partnership might be starting to gel and how well the pair do over the next few weeks will be crucial in both the development of the team and how it will affect results on the season.

whatever else, this was a well organized performance by the baggies, and would suggest that both rangers and the albion will be among the survivors of this competition when the final whistle is blown on the 13th of may, 2012.

QPR 3-1 WBA

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the average west bromwich albion supporter is more likely to suffer a greater degree of anxiety at the baggies scoring first and having to defend a one-goal lead than they would having them concede first and then having to go on and score two or three goals. even the vic buckingham sides of the 1950s were prone to slow starts and coming from behind to win games. so it was of little concern - and following the standard script - that ex-west brom loan signing, jay simpson, scored on 13 minutes to give the rangers an early 1-0 lead even before the albion had had any decent possession of the football.

in an unusual plot-twist, though, the game was then lost five minutes later when matthew connolly attacked the albion penalty area unchallenged to hit the ball past scott carson to put QPR two goals up. it was evident at this point that no matter what brilliant individual or team efforts the albion are capable of producing, they were never going to win this one and most of us who were watching or listening, i imagine, started looking towards a 2-2 draw as the best possible outcome. on the day that would have been an acceptable result.



however, with the strange and exciting dynamics that make up championship football, a positive outcome for rangers was probably always on the cards from the minute that neil warnock walked in the door to take over as manager earlier in the week. i don't know what it will do for them next week or the week after that, but for the moment, the arrival of one of english football's great characters at loftus road has given queens park rangers something extra on the day that they never allowed the baggies to really get anything going.

i was reminded of the baggies' first away defeat to barnsley by this one... in more ways than one.





typically - and as he has so often done in the past - the lone albion goal was scored by chris brunt. whether against arsenal or accrington stanley, playing well or not, the northern ireland international scores goals, creates goals and urges the team into attack in the face of the most hopeless situations. again it was brunt's eye for the game, his ability in seeing all immediate possibilities, assessing the right move and then having the technique to pull it off that makes him one of the better players in league football today. with several options open in the albion attacking move, brunt's quick decision to loop a pin-point header over rangers' keeper, ikeme, produced the only west brom goal on the day in another of brunt's individual moments of vision and inspiration.



the baggies were in control for long periods of the match after this, and indeed the 2-2 score-line that the albion support was anticipating appeared imminent until a shot from a free-kick was bungled by the albion defense and the ball managed to bounce off the post, back across goal and cross the line for the final 3-1 score.

despite this dropping the baggies to third in the table, they still have a game in hand over nottingham forest - who jumped back into second-place with a late 1-0 victory over swansea. so the baggies are still "in the driver's seat", as they say, for automatic promotion. while i expect a lot of baggies fans are reaching for the panic button, we've got to remember that with leicester city and swansea likewise gaining no ground on the weekend, we're still in a two horse race with forest.

while a draw between nottingham forest and swansea would have been the ideal, today i'll take a forest victory as second option since the baggies have a big game with swans coming up and i'm much more wary of swansea challenging for second place at the end of the season. i think them much more of a potential threat than forest - especially for a team like the albion! so, all-in-all, i think that the damage on the weekend is minimal and we've just got to keep perspective and maintain belief in our baggies. we have a load of home games coming up and i can't see them turning in this type of poor performance on a consistent basis.



with james morrison making his first start in over 11 months, and ishmael miller coming on in the second-half as substitute, we're reminded once again that we're still not seeing the albion at full-strength; and indeed, might not see a really, really strong albion side until the last three or four games of the season! so, in some ways, i think you could probably congratulate roberto di matteo already, because unless we really have a sudden, drastic and extended loss of form we're already pretty much assured a top-six finish, and we're still probably going to finish second in the league and gain automatic promotion. whatever the gaffer will have achieved on the year, he has done it with a team that has been missing some really important players - and some for extremely long periods of time.

while this wasn't such a terrible result when considering what happened to leicester city and swansea this weekend, what the albion probably did lose today - and with newcastle thrashing barnsley by the score of 6-1 - was a chance at the league title, which has otherwise been a realistic goal all season.

i now concede that newcastle united is in all probability going to win the division - and well ahead of schedule. on the other hand, while the baggies will still probably edge it for the second automatic promotion place, we're going to have steel ourselves a bit and set our minds to the fact that it is going to be hard fought, nervy and will probably not be decided until sometime during the last run of matches against doncaster, middlesbrough, crystal palace and barnsley. but then, would you expect anything different from west bromwich albion?

WBA 2-2 QPR

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while the albion have hit another little patch of poor results (2 points from a possible 9), simon cox rolls on with 6 goals in 7 games now - including the equalizer deep into injury time to help the baggies avoid a second home defeat in the space of a week.


the thing that was different about this was that it was the first time this year where the team played generally well - they kept up the pressure on rangers for most of the game - and didn't get full points. i've seen the baggies play badly and win. i've seen them play badly and lose. i've even seen them play badly and earn a draw. but i haven't seen them play this well and not get the result that they absolutely deserved. of course, it was common in the premier league but heretofore unseen in the championship this year.

to be fair, it was really just a bit of good luck that fell for QPR after what has been a horrendous month for them - and after starting the season as one of the form teams in the division, as well. truthfully, the play that saw jonas olsson head in an own goal from an incoming corner-kick could just as easily have been called back for a foul, as the big swede was obviously pushed in the back during the scramble for position in front of goal.



as for the albion - and as good as some of the football has been - i still don't think we've seen this team firing on all cylinders yet. while simon cox has found a really hot hand and may be a better striker than we may have at first suspected, none of the other forwards have found consistent form and made for the kind of season that the baggies had in winning the championship title two years ago.

it was obvious that we've been missing jerome thomas who scored his 6th goal of the season and has been - along with chris brunt - the best player on the team this year. we should have probably won this one 3 or 4-2, but that isn't going to happen until another one of the strikers also finds some form.

of course, luke moore is playing ok, but not doing so well. he's a bit dozy and slow to react to unexpected opportunity, but if he gets the right ball in behind the back four he's a good striker... just nothing falling for him at the moment. i still think they should give chris wood a start paired with simon cox. especially since they can now bring bednar on as substitute.

i've heard it said that when things are going well, that's the time to buy. this being true, the baggies are going to have to look at acquiring a top left-back, a good central defender and another striker during the transfer activities in january if they want to challenge for the division title this year.